Landlord Didn't Document Preferential Rent in Renewal Leases

A Yonkers rent-stabilized tenant filed a specific rent overcharge complaint with the DHCR in 2018. He argued that his 2015 vacancy lease set forth a legal regulated rent (LRR) of $957 per month and a preferential rent of $800. But prior landlord increased his rent by 20 percent when his lease was renewed in 2018. New landlord didn't submit lease records to the DRA dating back to the base rent date, despite requests to do so. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $5,934, including triple damages.

Landlord appealed and lost. Although landlord had preserved a LRR of $957 in tenant's vacancy lease, the LRR was waived in the next two renewal leases commencing May 2016 and May 2017, which stated only that the rent was $814 per month. The DRA correctly used that amount as the base date rent and found that landlord improperly tried to re-introduce the higher LRR of $957 in the 2018 renewal lease. Once waived, and based on ETPA Section 2501.2, that LRR could not be restored in 2018. The fact that new landlord bought the building in 2017 and wasn't responsible for the LRR waiver in 2016 and 2017 was not a defense to the finding of willful rent overcharge.

Annabi: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KS910015RO (1/9/23)[2-pg. document]